Transforming the needs of athletes in product requirements

Some garments are created in factories and are adapted to the various sports, and some garments come from the real needs of athletes and are designed to meet their specific necessities: these are the PoloTexSportTM items, a trademark which certifies that what you wear is the result of a virtuous path that pays attention to their user
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At this point each company combines to create the first prototypes: this is the alpha test phase, where prototypes are delivered to our athletes who test them and give us important feedbacks that we need in order to improve our product. Once products are developed, a wider range is manufactured: this is the beta test phase, in which we send our garments throughout Italy to recruited sportsmen, who try them and give us feedback through internet. Of course we want the utmost sincerity, and this is how we detect on the field the subjective quality characteristics (e.g. the garment keeps cool, warm, it reduces sweating and so on). Among the cross features that result from the testers, we take the ones everyone has detected openly and we bring them in the laboratory, where they are quantitatively and objectively tested, according to UNI regulations (e.g. to which extent the garment exactly keeps cool). Finally if the tests confirm the feelings that our testers have noted, the product, entirely made by our Italian companies, can be PoloTexSport™ branded».

And he concludes: «a garment that is created this way has already been sponsored among those who have tested it; often there are federations, cycling teams, that want to try it, therefore we give them the products and a kind of promotion by words of mouth starts, most of all about the qualities of the product, which are pointed out not by who made the product but by those who tried it, and this is a kind of Copernican revolution, because the products are really based on the user’s needs and not vice versa as usually happens».

 

Cooperation of dealers is requested

Who better than shopkeepers, in daily contact with cyclists and their needs, can be spokespersons for such needs to the producers?

«Recently we have been dealing with the great and fascinating world of cycling: in the past we dealt with less “popular” sports, such as fencing and synchro swimming. We really want to create a collaborative relationship with dealers – explains Sandroni –; we need to have skilled partners who may become spokespersons for their experience and needs of users. This allows improving our product and sometimes with no cost improvements, to really make progress. We need to create this important link in order to give value to our athletes, our experienced dealers and our companies’ technicians who, by working together, are able to create great things».

Retailers and cyclists who wish to have more information about the project and how to cooperate can contact our email: newtex@polotexsport.itÂ